Oppression
by Luke0107
Summary: A Sullustan smuggler, born into the last years of the empire, now realises that oppression does not end so easily. It returns with another name, but the same principal: Don't let anyone stand in their way. Having lived most of his life as a smuggler, Tan Numb, brother of Nien numb, understands that he cannot stand quietly by as the freedom of the galaxy is being ripped away.
1. Chapter 1

Oppression

Chapter 1

"Shit! Another direct hit and we're down! R5, angle the shields towards our left."

R5-C2 beeped in misunderstanding.

"Yeah you heard me right, you useless pile of metal, now angle the shields before we get blown!"

R5 coupled itself into the ship and angled the shields. "Alright now buddy hold on." Said Tan, the Sullustan piloting the ship, as he maneuvered the ship 90 degrees towards the six pirate ships. He had just managed to escape Lothal with some high end, SoroSuub, Empire age, Shield generators, when around 20 armed ships had broken through the atmosphere behind him. He had already set the coordinates for the jump to hyperspace, but these pirates were clever, and had taken out the hyperspace motivator right off the bat.  
Now, Tan had no choice but to fight them off and put his rusty piloting skills to the test. He had already taken out more than a dozen, of the enemy ships, but his stolen, Z-22 airship had been badly damaged. He had managed to take it from an unsuspecting trader back on Lothal.

It was a big ship. Clearly made for trading, not smuggling. It came equipped with one canon mounted on the top, but it had probably never been used.  
Now, Tan was heading directly towards the six remaining ships. All smaller than his, sure. But it made them all the more like swarming wasps. R5 ran and hid in the room with the generators when it realized what was happening.  
As Tan got closer, the pirates got more confused. If Tan were to hit them straight on it would definitely take down his ship, especially with his shields angled to the left. Was he going to blow himself up just to take down the remaining ships?

Two of the pirates turned away from the collision course, trying to flank him from the sides.

"I don't even know if this is gonna work. Is this gonna work? This better work!" Tan said to himself as he got closer and closer to the pirates, and in the last seconds, just before he would have blown himself up he made a sharp right turn, turning his shielded side of the ship towards the enemy ships. None of them managed to slow down in time, and crashed straight into the ship.

"Woooohoooo!" Screamed Tan raising his arms into the air.  
"Alright R5 I need you back here. The shields took most of the damage but the ship wont be able to take any more hits. We need that hyperdrive operational or that trick of mine will be for nothing." R5 came rushing into the cockpit ready to assist his partner. "See if you can get the hyperdrive back online. I'll try to take these two remaining guys out." R5 beeped and got to work.  
As Tan was about to angle the canon towards the pirates, massive readings appeared on his radar.  
"The hell? R5! We've got a lot of ships coming out of hyperspace in just a moment! Those pirates must have called for backup. We're _really_ going to need that hyperdrive functional."  
But just as Tan got locked onto by the two pirates, two X-Wings came busting out of hyperspace.  
Tans comlink started beeping. He reached into his pocket to answer.

"What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into now, brother?" A familiar voice called out.

The two X-Wings split up and took down the two remaining pirates as easily, as blasting Mynocks.

"Nien! Nien my little brother?!" Tan Numb, answered through the comlink.

"Yeah it's me! Here to save your life as usual."

"As usual? When have you ever saved my life you little brat" Tan laughed. "Who is that you brought with you?"

"That's Poe Dameron. The best damn pilot in the resistance".

"Happy to help out" Poe joined in on the comlink.

"Well it's good to meet you Poe. Come on, lets get out of here" Said Tan as he switched off the Comlink. "Is the hyperdrive operational R5?" R5 bleeped a yes. "Alright then. Let's go" He said as the stars blurred up around him and the ship boosted into lightspeed.


	2. Chapter 2: A few hours ago, on Lothal

(Warning! Contains mild spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

"So how did you get yourself into _that_ mess if I may ask?" Asked Poe Dameron to Tan Numb, as they were charging through the galaxy, headed towards the Resistance base.

"Well you know, it's not unusual in my line of business. I was picking up some shield generators for a client of mine. Seems like I wasn't the only one with that mission. I was trying to stay incognito, so I hopped on a transport shuttle out in the outer rim, where I had been assigned" Answered Tan, who had moved into a room down in the other end of the ship. He found some old toys, probably belonged to the man from whom he stole the ship.  
"I flew completely casual, was really hoping to stay out of trouble in this one. So as the ship landed on Lothal, I realized I hadn't really planned a way out. You can't bring more than one bag on those passenger flights, forget about 20 shield generators. So I did what I do best: Improvised.  
I arrived at a location I'd heard about. An old Imperial base. They had all kinds of old tech, ranging from blasters to Tie-Fighters. It was completely abandoned. Seemed like no one had been there for decades, which is probably a correct assumption. Anyway my droid helped me locate the generators. There were hundreds of them, filled up half of the warehouse. I got what I needed, and I even found an old blaster, still worked well. Anyway so i-."  
"Wait a second" Interrupted Poe. "If you arrived in a passenger shuttle, then where'd you get the ship you're in now?"

"Well I was coming to that. Will you just listen?" Said Tan as he played fetch with R5-C2.

"Alright, alright go on"

"Thanks" Exclaimed Tan.

"So as I was saying, I left the warehouse with what I needed and started looking for something to fly off in. It had to be big enough to room the generators, but nothing too fancy, still didn't want to raise suspicion. And there it was. And what a beauty. A Corellian freighter, just what I was looking for, a big ship, with a few guns and a bloody nice paint job."

"I thought you said, 'nothing too fancy'." Interrupted Poe once again.

"And besides, that's not what you're flying right now"

"Will you please let me get on with it with it? I'll cover everything don't worry.  
Anyway, _that_ ship blew up when a gang of pirates spotted me trying to load the generators into it. Apparently they wanted those generators too. I was about to tell them how many there were back in the warehouse, but I figured I might want to get back there someday and I don't want to find it emptied out by pirates. So instead I pulled out the blaster I found earlier, and shot them down…"

Tan paused, waiting for a response from Poe.

"No you didn't" He replied.

"Yes I did; why would you think I didn't? There were only like five of them and I had the generators for cover."

"Yeah, no you definitely didn't"

There was a short pause.

"No, you're right. I ran off with the generators, knocked some old man unconscious and stole his transport ship. Anyway the pirates got in their own ships and followed me out into space, and I ended up where I am now."

"Hmm; Well thanks for the story. We're closing up on the base anyway now so get ready." Said Poe and shut off his comlink.

Tan sat for a bit and contemplated on his decisions in life, wondering if he should have become a bartender on Tatooine, instead of this mess. Eventually he walked back into the cockpit as his ship emerged out of hyperspace towards the Resistance base on D'Qar, the place his brother Nien spent his time when he was not off saving the galaxy from the First Order.


End file.
